Garment with two way pockets

ABSTRACT

A garment such as a jacket includes a front provided with one or more pockets, each pocket having an inner and an outer opening so that a user can get access to the interior space of a pocket through either of said openings. In one embodiment a panel is provided to hide the pockets, with an opening providing access to the external openings of the pockets. Closure elements, such as zippers, hoop-and-loop strips or buttons are used as closure means.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

None

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Field of Invention

This application pertains to an apparel, preferably a jacket, that hasone or more pockets, with at least one pocket being accessible from boththe inside and the outside.

B. Description of the Prior Art

Garments, especially garments worn by men, such as sports jackets orsuit jackets are normally provided with a plurality of pockets. Lessformal jackets, including wind breakers, winter jackets, ski jackets andvarious other jackets used during sports activities are also providedwith several pockets. Jackets worn by travelers on a trip areparticularly popular because it permits the wearers to take many thingswith them, things that are not normally worn, such as passports, money,emergency medicine, tools, etc.

These pockets improve the esthetic appearance of the garments andprovide a convenient way of storing various items, such as wallets, cellphones and other smart portable devices, paper money, change, documentssuch as letters, passports and other legal documents, pens and otherwriting instruments and so on. In fact there is a whole industry devotedto designing and manufacturing items having various degrees ofusefulness that can carried in their jacket pockets.

Jackets, whether more or less formal, can have any number of internal aswell as external pockets, and these can have various sizes, shapes,orientation and structure depending on the construction, weight andmaterial of the jacket itself, as well as the purpose of the jacket, andother considerations. For example, some of the pockets on a jacket maybe a general purpose and can be used to store a variety of objects ofdifferent sizes, shapes, weights, and so on. Other pockets are sized,shaped and oriented for storing particular article, such as a passport,wallet, cell phone, camera, etc.

The provision of one or more pockets on a garment provide some unique,often difficult challenges to a designer and impose some difficultproblems that need to be solved to insure that the esthetic look of agarment is not compromised either by the pockets, their structure orcontent. In some instances, designers have solved some of these problemsby providing blank pockets using a sewing or flap to make it look likethe jacket had some pockets, when in fact, it did not.

In any event, each pocket is typically formed of two panels (that may ormay not form a part of the inner or outer panel of the garment)partially sewn together. Thus, inherently each pocket requiresadditional materials, increases the time and effort spent by workers tomake and assemble the pocket and increases the overall weight of thejacket. Pockets provide several other disadvantages and inconveniences.If a garment has too many pockets, a user can get confused as to whichpocket contains what. In some situations, a wearer may want access to aparticular pocket from the outside while other time a garment's pocketneeds to be accessible from the inside while at other times, the contentof a pocket need to be acceptable from the outside.

Finally, some of the pockets, especially externally accessible pocketsare difficult to protect from pickpockets and other people trying toobtain unauthorized access to the pocket. In other words, at least someof the pockets represent a serious security problem to its wearer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a garment, and more particularly a jacketwith several pockets, at least some of which are provided with twoopenings, one from the inside, and the other from the outside of thegarment, In one particular embodiment, the pockets are provided withseveral openings that open from different directions, each directionbeing selected to ease access by a wearer,

In one embodiment, a security cover is provided that hides one or morepockets so they are no longer visible from the outside.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a partial front devotional view of a jacket with severalpockets and a security cover constructed in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 shows a top sectional view of a portion of the jacket of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a front elevational view of the jacket of FIG. 1 with aportion of the front panel removed to show the underlying pockets;

FIG. 4 shows a partial front elevational view of the jacket of FIGS. 2and 3 with the security opened to allow access to the pocketsthereunder;

FIG. 5 shows a top sectional view of a portion of the jacket of FIG. 4similar to FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 shows a partial front elevational view of an alternate embodimentof the invention;

FIG. 7 shows a partial elevational view of a pocket of the embodiment ofFIG. 6;

FIG. 8 shows an elevational view of the jacket of FIGS. 6 and 7 lookingout from the inside thereof;

FIG. 9 shows a partial elevational view of a third embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 10 shows a partial top cross-sectional view of the pocket in thejacket of FIG. 9; and

FIG. 11 shows a partial elevational view of the jacket looking out fromthe inside thereof.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the Figures, jacket 10 constructed in accordance withthis invention includes a jacket front 12, extending to a shoulder 14and having an arm 16. The jacket front 12 includes at least a frontpanel 20 an inner liner 22. Jacket 10 is provided with a plurality ofinner pockets 24, 26, 28. Pocket 26 is defined between at least twowalls, an outer wall 30 and an inner wall 32. Access to the space withinthe pocket 26 is provided by a first or outer opening 34 and, a secondor inner opening 36. These openings can be vertical open slits, or maybe provided with respective pocket closure members such as a respectivezipper, one or more buttons, hook-and-loop type closures, etc. Moreover,the pocket openings 34, 36 need not be identical. For example, thepocket opening 34 may be an open slit while pocket opening 36 may beselectively opened or closed by a zipper, button, hook-and-loop strip,etc. Moreover, while in the drawings, the openings 34, 36 are shown asextending along the vertical lateral walls of the pocket 26, theopenings may also be somewhat shorter to insure that as the respectiveopenings are opened, the content of the pocket 26 do not fall out. Itshould be noted that the inner pocket opening 36 is not juxtaposed withrespect to opening 34. In one embodiment, it is preferably vertical toallow a user to reach into the pocket 26 with his hand and fingersmoving laterally through the jacket opening (not shown). Thisarrangement and pocket structure is much more natural and easy for theuser (or wearer) than if the opening 36 would be horizontal.

Pockets 24, 28 may have different sizes but preferably have the samestructure as pocket 26 described above.

Pockets 24, 26, 28 are not directly accessible or even visible becausethey are kept hidden by the front panel 20. However a generally verticalopening 38 is provided in the front panel 20. Again, this opening 38 canbe an open slit or can be closed by a suitable closing element, such asa zipper 40, or other similar elements, such as one or more buttons,hook-and-loop strips etc.

Initially, as a person dons and wears the jacket 10, vertical opening 38is closed and its pockets are closed from both sides. When the userwants to access one of its pockets, for example, pocket 26, he firstopens the opening 38 (for example, by opening zipper 40). He then movesthe front panel 20 from the jacket 10 in direction A as shown in Fig. Athereby gaining access to the inner pockets 24, 26 or 28. He then opensone of the pockets, e.g., pocket 26 by opening is opening 34 (by openingzipper 34A—FIG. 5, if there is one). He can now reach through theopening 38 and front opening 34 of pocket 26 into the inner space ofpocket 26 and either insert articles into the pocket or retrievearticles from the pocket 26. Importantly, opening 38 extends a long asubstantial length of the jacket 10, and especially by about 1″ or moreabove opening 24A of pocket 24 and about 1″ or more below the opening28A of pocket 28 in order to insure that the user can push his left handeasily into these openings 24A, 28A and access the interior space of therespective pockets.

Alternatively, the user can open the jacket 10, reach into the jacketwith his right hand, open the respective closing member for therespective inner pocket opening, such as 36, and deposit or retrievearticle out of, or into the pocket 26. Again, this action is facilitatedby having the inside pocket opening extending vertically so that theright hand and fingers can be advanced or removed moving horizontallyinside the jacket 10.

FIGS. 6-8 show another embodiment 50 with several differences ascompared to the previous embodiment. First, there is no external panel,and the jackets has one or more pockets 52, each having a respectiveouter opening 54 and an inner opening 56. A first closing means 54A,such as a zipper can be used to close opening 54 and a second closingmeans 56A such as another zipper may be used to close opening 56. Thisarrangement is more suitable for a more formal suit or sports jacket.The second difference is that while in the previous embodiment, theinner and outer openings of the pockets were disposed generallyvertically and in parallel to each other, in this embodiment, one of theopening, e.g., the outer opening, is generally horizontal, and the otheropening, e.g., the inner opening is generally vertical. Again, an innervertical opening is preferably so that it can be easily reached with theright hand.

Another difference is that in the first embodiment, each pocket has aninner wall 32 formed from a part of the inner lining 41 if the jacket 10and the outer wall 30 is formed from a small external fabric piece. Inthe embodiment of FIGS. 6-8, the inner wall of the pockets could beformed from a lining from the jacket or from a separate piece of fabricand the outer wall could be made of the outer panel 53 of the jacket ora separate piece of fabric. In either case, in the embodiment of FIGS.6-8 the outline of the pockets is not visible from the outside.

FIGS. 9-11 show a third embodiment 70 of the invention. In thisembodiment, again, there is separate outer panel similar to panel 20 tohide the pockets. Pockets such as 72 are provided having verticalopenings, including outer opening 74 and an inner opening 76. The outerand inner openings 74, 76 can be optionally closed with a zipper orother means. Except for the opening 74, pocket 72 is not visible fromthe outside. It may or may not be visible from the inside depending onwhether the pocket 72 is formed from separate panels between the outerpanel and the inner lining of the jacket, or whether the jacket has noinner lining at all.

Obviously numerous modifications may be made to the invention, withoutdeparting from its scope as defined in the appended claims.

1. A jacket comprising: a jacket front with at least one pocket providedon the jacket front, said pocket including an outer opening and an inneropening, said openings being arranged and constructed to provideselective access to an interior space within the pocket said inner andouter openings being-parallel to each other.
 2. The jacket of claim 1further comprising a closure member selectively closing at least one ofsaid openings.
 3. The jacket of claim 2 wherein said closure member isselected from one of a zipper, a button and hook-and-loop member. 4.(canceled)
 5. The jacket of claim 4 wherein said inner opening isgenerally vertical.
 6. (canceled)
 7. The jacket of claim 1 wherein saidinner and outer openings are generally vertical.
 8. (canceled)
 9. Ajacket comprising: a jacket front formed of an outer panel and an innerpanel; an arm; and a plurality of pockets disposed between said innerand outer panel, each pocket having a respective inner and outer openingsized and shaped to provide access to an interior space in therespective pocket; said outer panel extending over and hiding saidpockets and including an extended vertical opening disposed adjacent tosaid arm, said vertical opening being arranged to provide access to theouter opening of each of said pockets.
 10. The jacket of claim 10further comprising a closure member selectively closing at least one ofsaid openings.
 11. The jacket of claim 10 wherein said closure member isselected from one of a zipper, a button and hook-and-loop member. 12.The jacket of claim 9 wherein said inner openings are generallyhorizontal and said outer openings are generally vertical.
 13. Thejacket of claim 9 wherein said inner openings are generally vertical.14. The jacket of claim 9 wherein said inner and outer openings aregenerally in parallel to each other.
 15. The jacket of claim 14 whereinsaid inner and outer openings are generally vertical.
 16. (canceled) 17.The jacket of claim 16 wherein said pockets are aligned vertically andthe respective inner openings are vertically aligned with each other.18. The jacket of claim 9 wherein said pockets are aligned verticallywith the respective inner openings being vertically aligned with eachother and the outer openings being vertically aligned with each other.19. The jacket of claim 1 further wherein said inner and outer openingsare arranged to allow access to said inner space for the wearer ofjacket by reaching into the pocket from the inside or the outside. 20.The jacket of claim 1 further comprising an arm wherein said inneropening is further from said arm than said outer opening.
 21. The jacketof claim 1 wherein said inner and outer openings are arranged to provideaccess to one palm of the wearer from the inside and the other palm ofthe wearer from the outside.
 22. The jacket of claim 1 wherein saidpocket has two opposite lateral edges and said openings are disposed atsaid edges.